Get thee to a nunnery -- and ask for Madama there

--- One thing that is bound to irritate some Griceian is the use of 1, 2, 3, ... in stuff such as "Richard Snary" (dick-s-nary) -- I was watching an interview to Cortazar, the author of Hopscotch: the novel, and he refers to a dictionary as the 'cemetery of words'--.

In any case, consider this entry in wiki:

nunnery. Noun Singulal. Plural: nunneries
1.(archaic) a place of residence for nuns  [quotations ▼]
1601: Shakespeare, Hamlet III.i Get thee to a nunnery, why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners?
2.(slang) (obsolete) a brothel

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It strikes me as irritating that they have a 2. I mean. At least it's not coded as a "sense".

There are a few things to consider here. When I pasted it, I didn't know it would retrieve the quote from Shakespeare (I owe all this to J, of course), -- but I note the extended passage sort of cancels the implicature, 'brothel':

'Get thee to a nunnery, why wouldst though be a breeder of sinners?'

True -- a prostitute usually does NOT get pregnant. So, nunnery can steal mean 'whorehouse' there:

"Get to a brothel and apply. (as a prostitute). Why would you be a mother (a breeder of sinners). You just DEAL with them."

I mean, as a prostitute she would DEAL with sinners, not breed them.

But it strikes me as odd that Hamlet would try to avoid Ophelia becoming a 'breeder' of sinners, and just a 'dealer WITH sinners'.

But I'm all for the idea that Shakespeare DID mean 'slut' by "nun". And also that only someone very UN-Griceian would take Hamlet's words at face-value.

When I go to see Shakespeare (his plays, really), I can't disassociate anything I hear with that bust of the man that graces my Swimming-Pool Library! I even have a beautiful replica of the Globe Theatre and one of the largest engravings of the man I ever saw! Genius!

---- (And he influenced Verdi so much that I love him doubly)